Christmas Recap #1

This Christmas season was a blast! We had so much fun seeing Laura enjoy all the fun parts of the season.

Friday Dec 19th: A big snow storm dumped on us again. I got home from work early and picked Laura up early. We were going to go play in the snow when we saw the neighbor kids out - but by the time we got Laura and myself bundled up and outside - the kids were gone. Poof. Gone. We walked over to see if they were in the backyard sledding, but no. They had gone inside to get warm. Melissa peeked her head out to see if we wanted to come inside and at first I said no, but then we thought - ah, what the heck! We never see our neighbors once the snow flies! So, we went in and chit chatted and let the kids play for about 2.5 hours! Then Richie was home and he plowed out the driveway and we came inside to keep warm for the night. This is how she decided to drink her before bed bottle that night...

Saturday Dec 20th: Laura had fun looking out into the snow with Toby close by! Watching neighbor Cliff snowblowing.
Richie's parents were going to babysit for Laura while Rich and I went to his work Christmas party. But, their work party from the night before was rescheduled to Saturday since the snowstorm was so bad... so, they took Laura with them! Grandma and Grandpa came over to our house before going to the party so Laura could warm up to them and leave from here. She barked the whole way to the party in the van! They got a kick out of that for sure! Once they were at the party, Laura was all about her Grandpa. What else is new though? She did well as long as Grandpa was close by and at a little after 8pm, she took some bottle - scurried up onto Grandpa's shoulder and passed out fast asleep. Richie and I had a great (kid free) evening out. Ate way too much! and we got home after 11pm. We were going to go to my parents that night, but it was too late. And way too cold. We crawled into bed at around midnight and were up bright and early to see ... more snow!

Sunday Dec 21st: There was maybe 2-3 inches of new snow on the ground and it was blowing and drifting a lot. We decided to pack an overnight bag and get on the road. We left here at 8am and got to my parents church at 10:30... so the ride took us about 45 minutes longer than normal in the bad weather. The storm was supposed to dump 9 inches on us, but by about 1pm it had stopped snowing and the roads were all clear. We enjoyed the cantata at church and Laura tried to sing along a few times. Everyone said it was good to hear a happy child sitting in the pews. I thought she was so loud, but nobody else seemed to mind her happy chatter. She wore her Christmas dress and I believe she looked absolutely adorable. Just adorable. After church we went back to my parents (Grammie and Papa's) and had lunch and Christmas with them and Uncle Kevin and Aunt Dawn.

Here's Laura with her new Christmas bell - given to her by her Great Grandma Brown. Grandma has had this bell in her family for over 50 years. It's a great old bell with a nice deep sound. Lauras been carrying that thing around since she got it... just loves the thing!

This one is the dinner bell from my parents house! She loves that one too! ha ha!

I'll do more another night... More pics to come! :)

Tot Spot!

We went to an indoor gym for kids under 5 today. It was pretty busy. Owen went too and they had a good time playing! Laura loved the wagon the best - I was excited to see that since we got her one just like it for Christmas!

There's the cute little man known as Owen :)

Fleece hat + damp hair = lines where the elastic was...

Bath before we went + fleece hat on the way there + step 2/little tykes toys = fly away hair!

Ho Ho Ho!

We had a nice short little visit to the waterworks to see Santa today...

First we saw the lights... Ooooh Pretty :)

Then we sized up the Christmas Goose!

Then the big man in the red suit said "HO HO HO" and scared the living daylights out of Laura! (actually, that's a lie - she was screaming the minute he looked at her and she was on his lap literally long enough for me to snap this one picture!)
Then we went and watched the ducks and geese swim to which she proudly exclaimed "woof" to over and over. And then she was ready to be picked up and come home to our warm cozy house.

Christmas Card Sneak Peek

Yep, I dragged Laura out in the snow today to take some photos for our (first ever) Christmas card. They may be late going out because I don't know when we'll get them... but I'll get them out - I promise :)

Her vocabulary...

• mama
• dada/daddy
• thank you (forgot that one on the last list)
• uh-oh
• woof
• meow (new as of 2 days ago!) SO cute when she says that!
• hi
• sit
• bye
• boo
• stop
• ball
• kitty

And tonight was another first for her ... she said her first sentence!!!
She walked into the bathroom and said "Hi Daddy!" Loud and clear! Wow!

She also LOVES immitating what we're doing...

• Brushing her hair
• Talking on the phone
• Sweeping/mopping (although, that she came up with on her own because she certainly hasn't seen ME doing that!) ha ha!
• sorting things
• putting her toothbrush under the water to get it wet
• putting the bottle for her eye drops up to her eye
• helping daddy disconnect the heater
• helping daddy scrape floor tiles off the floor

I'm sure there's a ton of other things too, but that's just a sampling and all I can think of right now.

We're all still sick in this house...ugh. Will it be like this all winter?!? Let's hope not! Laura has pink eye so we're doing drops for that - the pink looks better, but it's still quite goopy. We missed a day of work/daycare on Thursday for that for the doctor's visit - she's now 23 pounds 7 ounces! Just an ounce shy of a 2 pound gain in 2 months!

Laura and I went away this weekend to visit Grandma Brown while she moved into her new apartment and we left Richie home to work on the hardwood floor - but like I said - everyone here is sick so he ended up recouping on the couch most of the day and didn't get nearly as much as he had hoped done. I left early this morning to come home from being away - felt like do-do... still do... Luckily though, I have the bestest hubby in the world and when we got home he let me take a 2.5 hour nap! I could have slept longer, but Laura was going bonkers for some mommy time.

28 days and counting until we better all be feeling well! (Not that we want to be sick for 4 more weeks, but that's when we really don't want to still be sick!!!) :)

Wanted: One bunny that comes with the "Are you ready for bed" book written by Jane Johnson. Laura received this book/toy set last year at Christmas and I'm sure you can guess why I'm asking for help finding another one... she LOVES that bunny. It is her bed time lovey of choice. I am having nightmares of losing the little bunny. I've searched online and all I can find is this measley picture off of the UK version of amazon - and it's sold out there. If anyone finds one, please let me know :) Thanks.

Things I've learned first hand...

* If it's quiet - you'd better get up and go see what your kid is doing!
Tonight, Laura was out with Richie in the living room and I was checking my email in the back bedroom - for those of you that know the setup of our house, you know that from where I sit at the computer, I can see down the hallway into the living room. Well, I thought Richie and Laura were playing - but she had left him and headed towards the middle of the big living/dining/kitchen area. She had quietly pushed a dining room chair over next to the island and this climbed up onto it all by herself! This is when I noticed it was a little too quiet and turned my head to look out that way - saw her smiling big and all proud of her accomplishment! I said to Richie that he had to look and he was as surprised as I was! Now nothing is safe - even high up. Uh-oh!

*If it smells like puke - and you know your child didn't puke (in that vicinity) - look for a bottle of rotting milk.
I know - gross, right!? Laura must have stolen her bottle off the bedside table that had an ounce of milk left in it - maybe last week sometime? I was folding clothes in her room on Friday and noticed this nasty puke smell near her closet. I thought that was strange because last week when she spit up (milk) it wasn't anywhere near the closet. I thought maybe it was just somehow wafting my direction although I was sure we'd cleaned up the chair and pillows that got hit last week. Well, today I was in her room again and I smelled it again. I stuck my head in the closet and took a big whiff... yuck! Upon further investigation, she had shoved the aforementioned 1 ounce bottle of (now rotton) milk into the hanging shoe organizer in her closet. It fell out on my head as I was pulling things out of it. Gross.

Bloggin' Slacker!

I'm sorry guys - I think this is the longest blogging break I've taken in a long time!

Let me see if I can remember why and what's been going on...

Laura has been sick for about 2 weeks now. We went swimming two wednesdays ago at the LHS pool with Nicole and her kiddos and that next day Laura started getting stuffy and sneezy. Since then it's been just runny runny runny nose and a loose cough - worse in the mornings. No fever though - I'm giving it the full course of "10-14 days" and if she's not much better I'll maybe make her an appointment ... she's acting fine and napping normally. And actually, the past 2 days has been a bit better overall.

So, Laura sick = mommy and daddy under the weather too. (hmmm...I think I just read something like that over on Jen's blog about Ava!) We've both had the "stuffy head/tiredness" bug... So - that means that all I've wanted to do is crash on the couch instead of in front of the computer.

Well, that is except for last week - I was busy! I felt like a different person - I had 3 evenings out leaving daddy home with Laura and even one night AWAY! Monday I went to a scrapbooking outing. Got almost all of Feb 2008 scrapped :) Tuesday night went on a last minute conference for work - but the kicker is we traveled up to the city that night for the conference which was actaully on Wednesday. I didn't really have any problems with being away for a night. It was nice. Not something I want to do all the time obviously, but it was definitely okay to do. Don't think for one minute though that I slept for a full 8 hours. I woke up everytime the heater next to me kicked on. Grr. Friday evening I went to a pampered chef party for a couple hours and ordered lots of stoneware (can't WAIT for it to be delivered!!!) Anyways - that means Richie and Laura did bedtime alone for three nights last week... and they did wonderfully! No fussing when she went down.

She's been going down REALLY easy since we did a stint of "figure it out" ... some parents call it cry it out - I think for Laura it was "figure it out girl - you gotta do it on your own"...
Here's my post from November 6th on another board:

Tonight is our night for figuring out how to sleep. I hope I can be strong enough for it. It breaks my heart to hear her cry. She's crying as I write. Most nights she goes to bed really well - takes her bottle with me holding her and gets all sleepy eyed and off to dream land she goes - lays in her crib with her paci and is out really quickly. Tonight though, she DOWNED her bottle in like 2 minutes (larger nipple on it) and she didn't have the chance to get all sleepy eyed in my arms... so I layed her down and immediately the screaming started. Sure, I could have rocked her a lot longer (we had already snuggled for awhile before the bottle)... but I figure if she has to learn to put herself to sleep in the middle of the night, she has to learn it for bedtime too, right? Anyways - 2 nights ago, she went down great - and slept until 4am. At 4, I was going to let her figure it out - but I reasoned with myself not to saying that she had already slept through straight from 7:30 - so I got up, fed her, and she was out another 2 hours. Last night - went down great - but was up at 1am, 3am, 5:30am (to eat) and back to sleep until 6:40. So, I'm hoping she'll cry herself to sleep tonight here at bedtime (she's been in there about 20 minutes and it's a whiney fuss now)... and I'm hoping in the middle of the night she'll remember this and NOT have to cry. I think half her problem is that she won't pick up her paci and put it in her own mouth - and she dropped the one she had in her mouth over the edge of the crib (I heard it plunk) - that was about 5-7 minutes ago - if she would just lie down, she'd see there are 2 more right in the crib. ugh. I hate this part of being a parent.

Total time crying/fussing that evening was 35 minutes. We never had to let her cry in the night after that because she has slept great!!! She's typically sleeping from 7:30ish until 5ish - taking a drink at that time and going back to sleep for another hour or so.

Words she does now:
Sit (dit)
Kitty (deep loogey sounding K sound) - although sometimes it does sound like kitty!
Bye
Mama
Dada
Uh-Oh
Woof (oof)
I think that's it for now... I'm not thinking of anything else she says...

Oh, and I think our biggest update for the past few weeks of not updating ...and definitely the one that makes me most sad... She's done breastfeeding. I went away for that one night and although we were down to just a 5am nursing session, I'm convinced that day away did us in. I got back home Wednesday evening - she nursed Thursday morning and Friday morning - and has cried each time we've tried since then. ~sniffle~ I only offered Saturday and Sunday. She's clearly done. I'm glad I had the time with Laura and I'm glad I even have some pictures to look back on. I am sad though that I didn't know ahead of time that Friday morning would be our last time together. I feel like if I had known it would be the last one - I would have savored that one last experience more.
So with that I'll end this post with a poem that makes me tear up a bit.

Wean Me Gently by Cathy Cardall
I know I look so big to you, Maybe I seem too big for the needs I have.
But no matter how big we get, We still have needs that are important to us.
I know that our relationship is growing and changing, But I still need you.
I need your warmth and closeness, Especially at the end of the day When we snuggle up in bed.
Please don't get too busy for us to nurse.
I know you think I can be patient, Or find something to take the place of a nursing; A book, a glass of something, But nothing can take your place when I need you.
Sometimes just cuddling with you, Having you near me is enough.
I guess I am growing and becoming independent, But please be there.
This bond we have is so strong and so important to me, Please don't break it abruptly.
Wean me gently, Because I am your mother, And my heart is tender.

Happy Halloween!!!

The makings of a cute little bunny...
















What are these on my hands!?!






















Ta Da! A bunny!
















Laura loved the firetruck ride! It was a little chilly out, but she was quiet and looked around the whole time. Thanks for the ride Uncle Kevin!!!






Laura and daddy had fun running through the streets (make that - empty streets!) of town... Laura was giggling the whole time!























Laura and mommy pause for a picture with the neighbors huge pumpkin while we were trick or treating.
























Mmm! Is this what rabbit tastes like?


















Laura and her pumpkin (Thanks Lynne!)


See her shirt? It says "Ghostest with the Mostest". I sent her to daycare in that on Friday and the other kids couldn't get enough of the little blinky on it! The ghost blinks with movement... when I dropped her off, Olivia and CJ just kept poking Laura in the chest to make it blink. They were too cute!


















And my favorite of the night...
OMG! There are no words for this picture!!!

13 month update!

Yep! She's 13 months old now!

*Same diaper info! Going on 10 months in the same size cloth. They say year 2 is where you start seeing savings :) YAY! Size 4 huggies still overnight.

*The 12 month clothes have pretty much all been packed away. 18 month sizes are in syle now.

*She is drinking 12-16 ounces of whole milk each day. She no longer nurses at night before bed. She does however, still have a mama's diner snack in the morning when she's still in sleepymode at like 5:30am.

*Bedtime is pretty good most nights. Tonight wasn't good - lots of crying, but usually she takes her bottle, lays in bed awake and falls asleep with less than 2 minutes of fussing - sometimes no fussing at all. Bedtime is 7:30ish.

*Wakeup time ranges 6-7.

*She hates her crib. Always has. She wakes up fussing every morning and every nap - but when someone goes to her, she gets happy. I would love to get a cute picture of her standing in her crib with the letters on the wall that spell her name in the background...but the only ones I manage to get are of her screaming. Not quite what I had pictured! (This is nothing new, just something I thought of now)

*Guess where she still sleeps at daycare? Yep, you guessed it. The infant bouncer. She still does 2 naps most days. Sometimes I think she's ready to drop that morning nap though and make one better mid day nap. Like this past weekend - took a 45 minute morning nap and then couldn't settle down for an afternoon nap.

*She is still rear facing in the van carseat. Richie turned her front facing in the truck a few weeks ago. She was always looking into the sun in the truck and even with those sunshades they sell, she didn't like it. She loves kicking Richie's coffee cup in the cup holder now!

*She wears a size 4 shoe, but most days she wears her little brown Robeez still. She knows where socks and shoes go. If I sit her on my lap to put them on, she pulls her feet up and tries to help. The other day, she was sitting on the floor with her socks on and she had a book open next to her. I looked over and she was putting her foot on the page... upon closer inspection, she was putting it on the shoe! There is a lifesized picture of a brown shoe so it looks very much like hers and she kept putting her foot onto it. It was so cute!

*Words:
Keeeeeeeyy (Kitty)
Mmmmmmmmm (Mmmmmm) or (More!)
Bol (Ball)
Yes, she does mama and dada, but not on a regular basis... I'm not worried. This kid is always saying something, even if we can't understand what it means.

*She understands some things we're telling her ... cries when we tell her not to throw her food on the floor, comes to us when we call her (geez...that makes her sound like a dog!), comes into bathroom when we say it's bath time

*She can climb stairs pretty efficiently! When it's time to go down though, I sit on the top step and she runs over and climbs on my hip.

*She has 4 teeth. Two top. Two bottom.

*She eats everything (pretty much...except veggies!). She loves fruit!

*She tackles poor Toby on nearly a daily basis.

*She is walking all over the place - not much need for crawling these days.

*She weights 21 pounds 12 ounces, as of yesterday at her flu-shot/check-her-ears-appoitment.

*She loves playing in the kitchen - the dishwasher is a favorite. She loves getting into any unlocked cabinets too.

*She drinks water from a sippy cup, but still doesn't like milk in a sippy. We've tried tons of kinds of sippies. Really hoping we don't have to take bottles on the cruise!j

*She still takes her paci to help her calm down for sleep.

What do you find in your cabinets?

I find teddy bears.
I find magnets.
I find ugly dolls.

What do you find behind your TV? Tonight I found: 1 toy purse, 1 toy lipstick, 1 toy bracelet, 1 little girls sock, 1 of my socks, 1 lady bug musical instrument, 1 block and 1 set of toy keys. Interesting place to stash the stuff, huh?

Iron Kettle Pumpkin Farm

We took a trip last weekend to the pumpkin farm. It's the same pumpkin farm that Richie used to go to as a kid :) It's become very touristy now, but it's still fun!

Mommy and Laura looking at the pumpkin people - this is the Sleeping Beauty part.
Here she is by the Winnie The Pooh pumpkin people and she loved the yellow rope in front of the characters! She grabbed right on and shook it all over the place.

Awe look - CareBear pumpkin people :)

More yellow rope...

Look how tall she is!

Taking a break from looking at the goats... Check out those two top teeth making their way into view!

Daddy and Laura chillin' by the corn.

And finally - the pumpkin patch!

Bathtub Cutie!

I pulled out my 50mm lens for my camera again - I've not had it out very much since Laura was born - just too hard to get good shots inside since you have to be so far back to get a lot in the frame and in a small house, that's not always possible. I'd rather get a bunch of so-so shots, than miss out on them altogether...but I pulled it out and have been playing again. I forgot how much I really do like using the lens though - I still have to work on getting that good crisp focus that I so dream about...

David and Laura hugging to keep warm today.

Come on now... Let me hear you all together...
AWWWWWWWWWW!

Poor Laura - Her mama won't Leaf her alone and always has a camera in her face! ha ha ha!